Friday, May 31, 2013

550 - 38 =

Bet you are wondering about the title of this writing. It is a bit strange but might make sense as you read on.
I love our local library book sales. Good books at great prices and the book sales help the library in so many ways. 50¢ here and $1 there can quickly add up to extra prizes for the summer reading program.
This year, as I was helping with set-up, I saw it. Sitting there just waiting for me. The fringe benefit of helping set-up is that you can purchase books that day. But this wasn’t a book. It was a puzzle. A jigsaw puzzle. And it was going to be mine!
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Isn’t that a beautiful picture? I could hardly wait. Those little faces as they looked at Jesus. The lamb. I was excited as I turned each piece over and pulled out the red pieces. That is where I would start. I would start with Jesus and then work around Him.
Then it happened. There was a red piece missing. I looked on the floor to see if I had dropped it. I checked the box again to see if I had left it in the bag. Oh, well. One missing piece would be okay. I continued on.
The trouble soon became worse. All of Jesus wasn’t there. A piece of the lamb was missing. One child was missing hair. I was now really ticked!!! What puzzle lover would put a puzzle in a book sale that was missing so many pieces? And just how many pieces were missing? I was now determined to find out.
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Find out, I did. Out of 550 pieces 38 were missing!!
SCRIPTURE: ACTS 17:24-28
The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. For in him we live and move and have our being. As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’
AND NOW
When we do not have God in our lives, we are like the puzzle with the pieces missing. We are not all there. We are not complete.
Do you feel that way? Like something is missing from your life? And no matter what you try to do or where you turn, it doesn’t help? There is just an empty feeling that will not go away? Maybe you need to seek Him.
God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. For in him we live and move and have our being.
Fill yourself! He is not far.












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